This is a three-year $450,000 research project, led from ISSER, to test a package of training and financing for women shea producers in Northern Ghana. This project, supported by USAID under its Feed the Future Advancing Local Leadership, Innovation and Networks (ALL-IN) program, seeks to increase the shea sector’s overall profitability while empowering women to receive the full benefits of their work.
Specifically, it is testing two core interventions to overcome key challenges that keep women from gaining higher and more consistent income from shea. The first intervention provides training through local women’s groups to increase the quality and yield of shea nuts and shea butter. The second intervention is a pre-financing contract with commercial buyers for up to one bag of shea kernels (about 85kg), which is worth approximately US $34.
The project is designed as a randomized controlled trial, which makes it possible to identify the true impacts of the interventions by comparing outcomes like food security and household income between households who received the interventions and households who did not. The project is taking place in 165 rural communities across Northern Ghana with research partners that include Presbyterian Agricultural Services (PAS), META Foundation, Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) and USAID Ghana.
Learn more about the project “Reducing Poverty among Women by Strengthening the Shea Value Chain in Northern Ghana”
Expected duration: 3 years (2021 – 2024)
Principal investigator: Dr. Fred Dzanku